Tigers, Roosters set to restart battle of biff
Josh Rakic
April 3, 2011

LINGERING tensions are set to boil over today when the Sydney Roosters and Wests Tigers meet for the first time since last year's controversial qualifying final, with halfback Mitchell Pearce saying the Roosters haven't forgotten ''that hit'' that left prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves heavily concussed.

In a sickening blow, Wests Tigers forward Simon Dwyer concussed Waerea-Hargreaves with a brutal shoulder to the face in the 78th minute. Waerea-Hargreaves was forced to leave the field while Tigers players openly laughed and cheered and were handed the feed in the scrum - much to the disdain of Roosters skipper Braith Anasta.

''The hit was high. He definitely got him,'' Pearce told The Sun-Herald. ''It was clean, but it was high. I thought we would have got the ball back. We did somehow, so I guess it was karma. It was a big moment.''

Coach Brian Smith pulled Waerea-Hargreaves from a scheduled interview on Friday in an effort to keep the Kiwi international focused on the match and not the man, but Pearce said the forward was already fired up.

''Jared is going all right, he's his usual self - trying to whack blokes,'' Pearce said. ''I think Smithy just wants him to concentrate on doing his job this week and not getting Simon Dwyer back. He's an important player for us, Jared. And they're both big boys. They'll both be fired up for Sunday. The Tigers have a very underrated forward pack and I think it's going to get pretty physical up the middle.''

Pearce himself wasn't far removed from the physicality of that 100-minute 19-15 epic encounter, trading punches with Tigers playmaker Benji Marshall in a heated opening 20 minutes. ''I can't really remember what happened, I don't know what started it, but I do remember I didn't really connect and he got me a lot more than I got him, so I won't be doing it again,'' a jovial Pearce said. ''There wasn't much in those punches. Every time we play the Tigers it's always fast and intense and I think it'll be exactly the same on Sunday.

''But that game, it was pretty awesome now when you look back on it and hear people talk about it, knowing you were part of it.

''We were lucky to get back into that game and obviously then, that miracle field goal on the bell. It was amazing, I can remember being pretty happy seeing that go over.

'' For the first probably 60 minutes we were just outplayed to be honest … they were playing all over us. We'll have to fix that on Sunday.''

Yeah seems that hit won't go away. I remember as well Ayshford holding off Carney to score that try in the second half- despite the crushing finale there were a lot of top moments in that game.

Sunday footy show are doing their best to fire it all up, I just hope the boys dig deep today no matter what happens. And that Dwyer's careful cos you think the refs will be all over the 'square up' aspect of the game. But if Dwyer starts and W-H is on the bench you wonder if they'll spend that much time on the field together. Does Dwyer play long minutes?